


Good Boy

by ObabScribbler



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Brotherly Love, Dark, Father-Son Relationship, Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 12:59:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18800839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObabScribbler/pseuds/ObabScribbler
Summary: Little Seto and Gozaburo face off against each other. What exactly provokes a father to put a dog collar on his adoptive son? What exactly provokes a proud boy like Seto to wear it?





	Good Boy

"Mathematics." Gozaburo clasped his hands behind his back. "Business management. Statistics. Languages. These are only some of the tools you will need to succeed in the life now before you."

Seto didn't reply. He stood ramrod, arms against his sides, not meeting his foster father's eyes but not looking at the floor either.

"You'll study every day with your tutors and take a weekly test in all subjects, which I will administer. If you don't score a higher percentage than eighty, there will be punishment, the nature of which will depend on your score." Gozaburo raised one eyebrow. The corner of his lip curled beneath his moustache. He looked like a black-and-white movie villain who had tied the maiden to the train tracks. "And how generous I'm feeling – or not."

Seto still didn't speak. That was what Gozaburo wanted. He had moved into this mansion less than a week ago, but he already knew the man possessed a warped sense of humour. Everything about the head of the Kaiba empire was rooted in cruelty and making himself feel big by making others feel small. His middle name might as well have been 'Power Play'. He did all his own hiring and firing, from vice-presidents to toilet-cleaners. He liked to see people's expressions, knowing he could make or break them. He liked it even better when he could see they knew it too. Seto wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Less than a week and he knew that, too.

Gozaburo's moustache wavered. A small crease dug in between his eyebrows. He reached with his right hand, paused, and then lifted Seto's chin so he was forced to look at him.

"You chose this.  _You_  challenged me to that chess match.  _You_  set down the terms of your victory, but only stipulated that I had to take in you and your brother. These are my terms to extend your tenure on a more -" His moustache twitched. "– permanent basis."

Seto remembered once reading something about silverback gorillas, and how they saw eye-contact as an act of aggression. It had been a moth-eaten book from the orphanage 'library' – really just a room of donated books generations of kids had ripped up to throw onto the bathroom ceilings. He found a tattered book on chess in the back; published before World War II, but full of strategies you couldn't get in modern, dumbed-down textbooks. He could recite whole passages. He could also remember the smell of mould from his room as he read it. He remembered the exact taste of meat so cheap it was practically all hoof. He remembered the fever Mokuba got when it snowed last December and nobody took him to a doctor. He recovered, but Seto's hand still itched with the touch-memory of his brother's hot, feverish forehead.

Seto looked away first. He didn't need to see to know Gozaburo smiled. His chin jerked back up at the sound of the bureau opening.

"When I was a boy, I had a dog," Gozaburo said almost conversationally. "A bulldog called Augustus. He wasn't intelligent, but was loyal and followed me wherever I went. I liked him despite his faults. He amused me. Sometimes he nipped, though, or tried to dig up my mother's flowerbeds, or did things that weren't allowed. I had to remind him who was the master and who was the pet."

Seto barely had time to resist before something encircled his neck. Shock rose like bile in his throat. He touched the collar, anger blistering his skin where it touched.

Gozaburo's moustache curled like barbwire. "Good boy."


End file.
